“My patio furniture and patio has several of these dried up worms and what looks like excrement everywhere”, states this reader concerning the dark green organism with black spots pictured below. “We have a pretty dense canopy of trees but I have never seen this before. Could you help me identify the worm and tell me if this is indeed worm excrement? Thank you.” Firstly, we think that the worms our reader has been finding are caterpillars: the organism’s bulbous head, prolegs, and coloration all point to this fact. That said, the coloration is a bit off: the blackish part of its body almost looks like it has been burnt, and the greener part at its rear suggests it used to be a much more vibrant green. Maybe this is a result of the caterpillar drying out as our reader suggested.

If it used to be a brighter green, we might say that this is a euonymus moth caterpillar. These caterpillars feed on euonymus plants, also known as spindle trees, which are a type of flowering plant. Euonymus caterpillars are defoliators, meaning they eat the leaves of the plants, and, like many species of caterpillars, can prove to be pests when they swarm a tree or plant in large numbers. If their populations rise to high enough numbers, they can successfully defoliate an entire euonymus plant, making them quite harmful to the plants they feed on. That said, these caterpillars are not dangerous to humans or pets.

With regard to our reader’s second question, we think that the little brown objects in the second photo (below) are indeed the faecal pellets of the caterpillars. At first we thought they could be pupae, but they look much smaller than the caterpillar, so that would not make much sense. Our reader is probably right in suggesting that the caterpillars fell from the canopy above her patio, though why she has never encountered this before, we do not know. Perhaps the moths have migrated to this area because spindle trees were planted nearby, or perhaps the canopy is a source of food for them. Or maybe their old habitat was destroyed and they were forced to move elsewhere. The reason the caterpillars have dried up may be simply due to the heat, though we do not know where our reader is located, so that may not be accurate. Alas, we cannot do more than speculate, but what we can be sure of is that our reader is not in harm’s way. All she needs to do is brush these dead caterpillars and the excrement off her patio.

To conclude, we think that the dried-up worm-like critters our reader has been finding on her patio are some type of caterpillars, and it is possible they are euonymus caterpillars. However, it is difficult to say for certain given their inconsistent, and strange, coloration. Likewise, the brown pellets are indeed excrement, which she can just brush off her patio, though we understand it is nonetheless unpleasant to find. We hope this article proves helpful and we wish our reader the very best!

Summary

Article Name

Dried-up Worms on Patio Could be Euonymus Caterpillars

Description

"My patio furniture and patio has several of these dried up worms and what looks like excrement everywhere", states this reader concerning the dark green organism with black spots pictured below. "We have a pretty dense canopy of trees but I have never seen this before. Could you help me identify the worm and tell me if this is indeed worm excrement? Thank you." Firstly, we think that the worms our reader has been finding are caterpillars: the organism's bulbous head, prolegs, and coloration all point to this fact. That said, the coloration is a bit off: the blackish part of its body almost looks like it has been burnt, and the greener part at its rear suggests it used to be a much more vibrant green. Maybe this is a result of the caterpillar drying out as our reader suggested.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton